First timer here. I work in a multi auditorium movie theater. We host many film festivals through out the year and are looking to upgrade our "shorts block" programming this year. We have been using Mac Mini's and VLC out to either Epson or Christie(DCP) Projectors. Our screenings have been glitchy, torn and loaded with sync issues, thus the need for change.

A colleague has recommended that we purchase a BM Mini Monitor(in route) to help with all the different file types we get and help properly buffer playbacks. He also suggested we use SWITCH by Telestream as our playback software alternative to VLC.

I understand VLC is a free, non-pro software, but the ability to drag in multiple files, multiple file types and in-house made media and play them in succession, is the most important element for us here. Seamless playback is of course our primary concern for our guest and filmmakers.

Thanks so much for the info! Just spoke w the folks over at Softron. Looks like it’s a perfect fit for us. It is indeed pricey though, with 3 auditoriums running film at the same time we would need 3 licenses. 3,000.00 might break our non-profit bank.

Any other similar alternatives to OnAirExpress that is compatible w Black Magic products?

Awesome! Thank you. Seems like that is the product we need. Unfortunately, I’m not sure we can afford 3k to get our auditoriums up and running :/. Any other products out that that are comparable and possibly cheaper?

Not knowing what vintage your MacMini is, and what the file types/sizes are -- not sure that it is VLC that is causing you problems.

The closer you can get to a universal file type standard, the closer you'll be to trouble-free playback. I get trying to be as accommodating as possible, but at some point, the two letter word needs to be uttered.

Get a copy of Compressor or Handbrake to convert to known good playback formats to help with those last minute requests.

I volunteer for a small movie theater in brooklyn NY "The Spectacle"and we show all sorts of films from terrible sources (mp4, avi, MKV, prores, etc etc)(but great films)

I too would like to see a good alternative to VLCespecially around issues of locking FPS between computer and projector(one suggestion is to use a BMD mini monitor thunderbolt to HDMI)

but until something better comes along we too use VLCwith two screens off a four year old mac mini (one projector & one booth screen)&only occasionally do we have to re-encodelike one file in 20 -- we use handbrake

a few thoughts:

do check for malware on your computersthis was a problem for us -- "malwarebytes" fixed a lot of problems

make sure your outgoing resolution is 1080p and 60Hz or 50HzVLC is meant for that and automagic-ly converts to 25 24 29.987 fpstrying to get VLC to output 24fps from a computer set to 24Hz will not work- you will get dropped frames and stutter

It is open source and free and you can use any kind of Blackmagic card to play out stuff. It is multiformat and can resize/convert in realtime. There are some free clients out there (one from the CasparCG Team) that allow playlists and many more options. It plays many different formats.

You could also check out Imimot's Mitti and Non-Lethal Application's Video Slave.They are designed for synced playback, but you might be able to use them for your application as well.And they are a bit less expensive.

i`ve had similiar requirements. Why don't you use Davinci Resolve?It uses the Blackmagic interfaces (obviously) and has a good playback engine....You can play files in the media tab or create a timeline with the clips.

The Decklink plugin for VLC totally sucks and is unreliabele.The Scratch Player is not freely available anymore.Blackmagic's own "Media Express" Player sucks in terms of formats. (I still don't get why they're not updating it with Resolve's playback engine...)

So the best solution is to install the free Davinci Resolve and use it as a player..May sound strange but works best.

VLC is workable if you really spend time hiding the onscreen menus, but only for the lowest of budget solutions.

For mac based playback with playlist support I'm surprised no one has mentioned PlaybackPro from DT Videolabs. (prior v2 offers a 50% cost savings compared to OnTheAir) Demo versions free to try.

I am a playback operator with it constantly on high dollar corporate shows. The only gotchya is that it really prefers ProRes files, as should you, it will play MP4 x.264 but you run the risk of hiccups. I haven't had the opportunity to try it yet but I think it even supports network sync'd playlists on multiple media machines (You mentioned multiple auditoriums).

So keep a copy of MPGStreamClip handy for transcoding (or Handbrake), and get your Quicktime/ProRes codec installation sorted (doable without retail apple video software, but requires some effort).

OBS now has Decklink output support (latest Beta version). This lets you use the media source engine to play any video format and assign to a scene so playback starts as soon as it is selected. Only tested with playing back 25p video at 50p which is seems to do well. With the NDI add-in for OBS it will probably work for converting NDI to SDI also.

Just writing a PowerShell script now to initiate OBS scene selection from ATEM Input Selection and changing scene from media slot selection (just as a dummy ID creator so you could use a hardware panel to select the OBS scene number).

Thanks again everyone. Really helping me suss through all the options with this issue. One main problem we run into with the festivals is not affecting a filmmakers film in any way as they are usually are in attendance and don't care for that too much.

So it looks like OnTheAir and Miti are the 2 options we are going to try out.

Thanks again and I'll respond in a few months after we have giving one of them a good trial run.

Someone earlier did mention ProPresenter. I suppose you could also use PowerPoint for that matter. Make sure your computer is only running necessary programs, disable screen-savers, fresh re-boot, etc.

What about a hardware solution? HyperDeck Studio mini. If you have Adobe Media Encoder (or other), you could make presets and batch encode all your clips. Copy to SD cards and playback from the HyperDeck. Very solid hardware solution.